Tài liệu Figure Drawing - Dynamic Figure Drawing doc

Figure 8.1 A live model could not hold this pose for more than a fraction of a second.... Figure 8.1shows a pose taken from a model in Figure Artist that would be impossiblefor a live mo

Figure 8.1 A live model could not hold this pose for more than a fraction of a second.

D y n a m i c F i g u r e D r a w i n g

Figure Artist bringsa whole new dimension to posing a figure that

would be nearly impossible in real life With Figure Artist, the ability

to catch an action pose is limitless In real-life situations, about the best

an artist can do is ask the model to perform an action and then try to capturethe action with a camera, which is a haphazard approach at best Figure 8.1shows a pose taken from a model in Figure Artist that would be impossiblefor a live model to hold for more than a fraction of a second

This chapter deals with creating dynamic figure poses that would not be sible with live models My hope is that it will help you to unlock a world ofpossibilities that goes beyond those available in a life-drawing situation

pos-Limitations of a Live Model

Although a live model is always the preferred situation for drawing the figure,there are limitations to what you can have a model do Live models are humanswho live in a real world They get tired Even a relaxed pose can’t be held indefi-nitely The following are just a few limitations you will find when posing a livemodel:

✎ Gravity affects everything in life, including a model, causingfatigue Some poses are easier to hold than others for longperiods of time Out of respect and compassion for the livemodel, most figure-drawing situations tend to be poses thatthe model can hold without a great deal of difficulty Dynamicposes are often short, giving the artist little time to fully

✎ Some poses, such as

running or jumping,

can’t be held at all

because they happen in

the air Again, gravity is

the problem I guess if

there were a

life-mod-eling class on the space

station the model could

hold an action pose,

but until artists can

work in the

weightless-ness of space, a live

model can only hold a

pose when planted on

the ground Even

rig-ging a harness to

sus-pend the model doesn’t

work very well because

of the distortions and

view obstructions the

harness causes

✎ Viewing the live model

is usually limited to a

range near eye level

Not often can an artist

view the model from

directly above because

most studios or classes

are not equipped with

catwalks or other

over-head platforms for

drawing Likewise,

drawing from directly

below the figure is

impossible because of

a thing we call the

floor I guess it would

be possible to put themodel on an overheadglass platform, but Ihaven’t seen too many

of those

✎ Time is also a limitationfor live models Notonly is there the prob-lem of fatigue men-tioned a moment ago,but there is also thefact that models can’talways be aroundwhen you want them

They have lives of theirown, so drawing timehas to be scheduledwell in advance Thus,

if you have a great ideafor a drawing, youmight have to waitbefore you can pose amodel

✎ Another limitation of alive model is the factthat there is usually anexpense involved inhiring the model Fewmodels work for free

Modeling is work, andthe models deserve to

be paid for the timeand effort involved inmodeling for artists

✎ Models are people, andbecause they are peo-ple, they come in avariety of shapes andsizes You might not beable to find just theright person for yourdrawings In addition,the person you findmight not be able toperform the requiredposes because of lack

of training or ability.For example, youmight want to havesomeone pose for agraceful ballet pose,but you might not beable to locate a quali-fied model in yourarea

✎ A living person willtend to move even if it

is only a little bit.Holding a pose is hard,and often the modelwill shift or lean a littlewhile posing When themodel takes a breakand then tries to reas-sume a pose, he or shewill never be in exactlythe same pose asbefore

Figure Artist does not solve every

limitation of live models, but it

does go a long way toward solving

many problems A model in Figure

Artist can hold a pose indefinitely,

no matter how difficult the pose

Holding a pose indefinitely is a

great advantage because the artist

can study the figure in detail

What’s more, when a model from

Figure Artist is posed, it doesn’t

move at all If you come back a

year later and load the pose, it will

be exactly the same

Figure 8.2 shows a pose of a acter in the act of jumping in theair This is a good example of apose that could not be held by alive model, but can be held by avirtual model

char-The virtual model can hold thisaction pose for as long as the artist

needs it as reference What ismore, the artist can adjust the pose

as needed to fine-tune the action.Figure 8.3 shows another suchpose

You can see from these examplesthat dynamics of figure movementthat go beyond the sedate, staticposes of the life-drawing class arenow available to the artist throughFigure Artist

Figure 8.2 The virtual model can hold a pose

indefi-nitely.

Figure 8.3 This is an example of an action pose.

Posing the

Dynamic Figure

Dynamic figure poses are different

from other poses in that they push

the envelope of human movement

In other words, dynamic figure

poses are at the extremes of the

motion that the human body is

capable of performing

Extreme

Movement

Dynamic figure posing really has

two main components that the

artist needs to work with to be

suc-cessful The first is exploring the

extremes of human motion

with-out going beyond the physical

restraints of the body The second

is establishing a strong action line

that conveys a consistent

momen-tum within the figure

The joints of the body have natural

limits to movement The arm, for

example, only bends at the elbow

in one direction Contortionists

may defy the natural limitations of

the human body, but drawing a

limb that is pushed way beyond its

natural limits will often result in a

drawing that looks odd or

disturb-ing rather than dynamic Some

exaggeration is okay when posingdynamic figures, but overdoing itmight push your drawing fromdynamic to grotesque To create agood dynamic pose, you need topush the limits of human move-ment, but not break them

For years comic book artists andanimators have known that theextremes of movement are themost dynamic depictions of human

action These art forms have sistently pushed the human figureinto more and more extreme move-ment to add drama and suspense

con-to art Take a look at the three ure poses shown in Figure 8.4.You can see from these picturesthat the beginning and end of anaction are more dynamic than thepose that is partway through thepunch

fig-Figure 8.4 The beginning or end of an action holds the most dynamic pose.

The Action Line

Now let’s take this example even

further and push the dynamics a

little Take a look at Figure 8.5 and

notice how making the action

extreme increases the feeling of

drama and power

If you remember from Chapter 5, a

pose that has a strong action line is

more dynamic than one that

does-n’t Figure 8.6 shows the action

lines superimposed over the figure

pose Even the lines seem dynamic

Figure 8.5 This punch seems more dramatic. Figure 8.6 The action lines seem dynamic.

All good dynamic poses start with

a good dynamic action line Theaction line is the unifying elementthat ties the figure to a consistentmotion A good, strong action linewill give a figure a sense of finesseand grace Try to think of the fig-ure as a single line Look at the line

to see whether it conveys thedynamic quality that you want tohave in your drawing If the under-lying action line does not express astrong sense of dynamic motion,the overlaying figure won’t either

You don’t necessarily have to drawthe action line first, but you doneed to see it in the pose of yourfigure A good way to work withthe virtual models in Figure Artist

is to create the pose and then draw

an action line over the model, likethe lines drawn over the model inFigure 8.6 You should be able tosee readily whether your model has

a strong action line If it does not,you can then work on the posesome more to get a better line

After you have a strong action line,

drawing the dynamic figure

becomes easier Figure 8.7 shows a

drawing of the figure from the

action pose

Figure Artist comes with a number

of poses for both the male and

female models These poses range

from relaxed, mundane actions to

dynamic comic book–style poses

To help you learn how to increase

the drama in your own poses, I

suggest that you load a few of the

poses and adjust them See

whether you can make the poses

more dynamic Work on the action

lines and see whether you can

cre-ate some expressive dynamic poses

for your drawing from the poses

that come with the software

Figure 8.7 After establishing the action line, the figure is then drawn.

Posing Multiple

Figures

Posing one figure is a challenge,

but often the artist will want more

than a single figure in the drawing

Sometimes multiple figures can

cause problems for the artist

because they have to be drawn in

relation to each other

You can set up scenes with live

models to have multiple figures,

but two models usually cost twice

as much as one model With

Figure Artist you can add as many

figures as you like, and they don’t

cost any more than the purchase

price of the software

Let’s take a look at the punch pose

again What good is a punch if it

doesn’t actually hit anything?

Figure 8.8 shows a virtual model

punching and another virtual

model getting punched

Figure 8.8 This punch landed.

A great advantage of Figure Artist

is that the models are to scale,

which helps to keep the figures in

your scenes in scale with each

other The perspective in Figure

Artist is automatic

Now let’s try a more dynamic posefor our two models Instead of thelight tap that our models used, let’ssee some real action and reaction.Take a look at Figure 8.9 One ofour virtual models has just finished

a powerful punch, and the othermodel is feeling the effect

Are you starting to see how moving

a pose to the extreme of its motionenhances the action in the pose?

N O T E

These poses are other ples of poses that would bedifficult to achieve in a livemodeling session Not toomany models will be willing

exam-to have their jaw dislocatedjust so the artist can get agood look at a fight scene

However, the virtual modeldoesn’t really feel pain, so youcan beat him up as much asyou like, and he will stillcome back for more

Figure 8.9 Now that is a powerful punch.

Moving the Point

of View

Not only can the pose be dynamic,

but the view can be as well A

static view from the side, such as

the one shown in Figure 8.8, might

not always be the best view of

dynamic action Although the

action lines may be strong, the

pic-ture can look less dramatic because

it is viewed from a perpendicular

angle Poses tend to look more

dynamic if the view is at an angle

other than a flat view of the action

Although it is not as noticeable in

single-character pictures, this

Figure 8.10 Change your point of view to increase

A view in Figure Artist is associatedwith a camera By moving the cam-era, you are moving your point ofview Take a look at Figure 8.10

The only thing that has changed isyour point of view

In Figure 8.10, the action is ing more toward us, making thepicture more dramatic Notice that

head-as you turn the scene, the figuresstart to overlap each other Thediagonal lines in the scene also

become more dramatic This view

of the scene has a lot more dramathan the one shown in Figure 8.9,without changing the poses ofeither model

You should never accept the firstview you come up with of a scene.Always explore different angles tosee whether you might find a bet-ter view Figure 8.11 shows thescene from the back of the punch-ing model Although it has thesame (if not stronger) diagonallines as Figure 8.10, it doesn’t have

as much drama because the action

is going away from the viewer

Figure Artist has no restrictions as

to the angles from which you can

view your poses You can even

become creative and view the

action from a sky shot, as shown in

Figure 8.12, or you can look at the

action from below, as shown in

Figure 8.13

Moving your models around cangive you a better view, and it canalso give you an opportunity toview your pose from other angles

to see whether it looks right Thevirtual models simulate a real 3D

environment A pose that mightlook right from one angle oftendoesn’t look as good from anotherunless you pose your model andlook at it from multiple angles

Figure 8.12 You can view the scene from up top. Figure 8.13 You can also view the scene from down

below.

Posing with

Objects

When you are drawing figures, you

might want to also add some

objects Figure Artist has a number

of simple objects with which you

can have your virtual models

inter-act These objects are by no means

a complete set of objects for thing you might want to do, butthey do form a basic set of shapesthat you can use For example,Figure 8.14 is using a box objectfrom the available objects as a propwith the figures

any-Figure 8.14 Props can also be added to scenes.

Figure 8.15 Changing the view helps to show dimension of the box.

The view of the scene is kind of

static because it is taken from the

side, but you should be able to see

how adding a prop can help with

putting a group of figures together

Figure 8.15 shows a more dramatic

view of the models pulling and

pushing the box

In this scene there are five figures

struggling to move the box From

the amount of effort these guys are

putting into it, the box must be

very heavy An aspect of virtual

models that works very well is that

they can strain at something ashard as you like without ever get-ting tired If these guys were realmodels, fatigue would cause them

to only be able to hold a pose likethis for a few minutes

Virtual models might have thedrawback of not showing theintense muscle strain of individualmuscles, but the models can be set

up to show the overall stress put

on the body with extreme exertion

From the poses with the box, youcan clearly tell that the models are

pushing and pulling a heavyobject The hunched stances andoff-balanced positions of the threepulling imaginary ropes clearlyshow their exertion The two push-ing the box show by their posturethat they are leaning hard againstthe back of the box

With a little work you can haveyour virtual models interact withprops in a very realistic manner Alot depends on how you set upeach pose in relation to the object

Adding Clothing

Not all figure drawing is of nude

figures In fact, artists have to deal

with clothed figures more often

than with nude ones The clothing

for the models in Figure Artist is

similar to the props in that there is

not an endless set, but there is

enough to represent a good array

of options for clothed figures

The real benefit of clothing

simula-tion in Figure Artist is that you can

pose your figure, save the file, and

then add the clothing and save the

file again You then have a good

view of the underlying structure of

the body and another of the

over-laying cloth For example, Figure

8.16 shows a scene with two

fig-ures in a dancing pose

N O T E

The clothing in Figure Artist should not be viewed as an exact ence of how cloth hangs off the figure, but rather gives a generalidea of how the figure would look clothed If you are interested ingetting a more accurate simulation of cloth on the human form, youwill need to upgrade from Figure Artist to the full version of Poser.Poser has a very sophisticated cloth simulation system

refer-Figure 8.16 Pose the figures before adding clothing.